Gaming machines, gaming systems and methods of awarding wild symbols during play of a gaming machine game

Abstract

Disclosed are gaming machines and gaming machine systems and methods including a feature game in which a player is awarded one or more wild symbols. In one embodiment, the number of wild symbols awarded is derived from a number of special symbol occurrences during preliminary play of the game. In another embodiment, each play of a plurality of plays enables an additional symbol in a symbol set as a wild symbol for the remaining duration of the game.

What is claimed: 
     
         1 . A method of operating a wagering game for a gaming machine comprising a non-transitory memory device and executed by a processor of the gaming machine, the steps comprising:
 initializing a tally;   presenting a plurality of games comprising spinning one of more symbol-bearing reels to produce a game outcome and, for each special symbol displayed as part of the game outcome, incrementing the tally;   upon conclusion of the presentation of the plurality of games, presenting an additional game outcome comprising spinning the one of more symbol-bearing reels to produce an additional game outcome, wherein, one or more of the symbols displayed as part of the additional outcome is replaced by one or more wild symbols, the number of symbols replaced by wild symbols determined by the tally.   
     
     
         2 . A method of operating a wagering game for a gaming machine comprising a non-transitory memory device and executed by a processor of the gaming machine, the steps comprising:
 present a plurality of games, each of the plurality of games comprising designating a symbol as a designated symbol and spinning one of more symbol-bearing reels to produce a game outcome and, for each designated symbol displayed as part of the game outcome, treating that symbol as a wild symbol in evaluating the game outcome for any winning combinations of symbols; and   retaining the wild characteristic of the designated symbol for all subsequent games in the plurality of games.